We can treat HH like a rat, PF warns UPND

We have the capacity to treat Hakainde Hichilema like a rat and confine him to his New Kasama house, PF deputy secretary general Mumbi Phiri has warned.

And Mumbi says police should inform PF if they have failed to protect President Edgar Lungu because the party has a strong security team which can take up the challenge.

At a media briefing today, Mumbi warned that her party was capable of confining Hichilema to his house in New Kasama if he continued provoking the Head of State.

“And a warning to Hakainde Hichilema is that we are capable of confining him to his house in New Kasama, and we can do that. And he should take note that we will treat him the way a rat is treated if you want to catch it, for those of us who eat Mbeba (rats) we know how to catch a rat. We will confine him to the confinement of his house because we see that he doesn’t care about his life, he doesn’t care about women, and he doesn’t care about the youths. That is why we say that young man being stabbed to death after his cadres whom he intoxicated with whatever substance stabbed their fellow youth to death in Kanyama. Why do I say those youths were intoxicated? Because under normal circumstances you cannot kill a fellow human being the way they killed Steven in Kanyama,” Mumbi said.

And Mumbi said the PF security team was capable of protecting President Lungu better than police.

“For how long are we going to restrain from the provocation by Hakainde Hichilema who even attempted suicide in Mongu; a liquidator who wants to liquidate the country Zambia just the way he liquidated some companies. As women and youth of Zambia we are not ready for that. My question to the police is ‘where were they? Because when you look at the pictures that we have seen, you can see that the president’s car window was opened, was that normal?” Phiri asked.

“And [I] am emphasizing, if the police have failed to protect our president, because this time we really saw our president’s life at stake. We have a very powerful security wing, let them authorize us; we will look after him better than them.”

Mumbi observed that police officers were negligent in the manner in which they handled the incident.

“When we saw the presidential vehicle moving side by side with that of the opposition leader, yes we noticed the road was very narrow but we expected as per procedure and am speaking as a lay person who just observed what the police do, why didn’t we see some officers moving side by side the presidential vehicle? We saw the opposition leader’s vehicle with their security outside, to us we are worried, and we want the police to give us a go-ahead to provide security to our president as a party,” she added.

Mumbi wondered why Inspector General of Police Kakoma Kanganja said he was still awaiting a full report on what transpired when there was enough evidence indicating a lapse on the part of police.

“We are a very democratic country, and we follow the rule of law. We don’t want to take law into our own hands. We heard the statement from the Inspector General of Police that they are investigation but I think all of us are aware that there is enough evidence, this is not Stone Age where you can conceal information. There is enough evidence that there was a lapse on the side of the police. So we want to give them time and as a party we are very calm, mind you, Zambia is not a one party state where a party is connected to government, we don’t run like that,” Mumbi said.

PF deputy secretary general Mumbi Phiri with party deputy spokesperson Frank Bwalya during a press briefing at the party secretariat in Lusaka-picture by Tenson Mkhala

“I hope from this statement, the Inspector General of Police will listen and expedite the investigations because everybody is waiting, but am telling you we are not going to sit, you are going to see a lot of activities happening. And I would like to urge our party structures to start talking as party structures…your job is to talk, that is why we have people who lie that they are party presidents and that they will be inaugurated on such and such a day because you are too quiet. When the police saw that the vehicles where too close, I expected them to come out and surround the presidential vehicle side by side but they were seated in the car, maybe they were too fat, they don’t train to run; it’s very disappointing.”

Mumbi said it was up to President Lungu, the appointing authority, to decide on what to do with Kanganja over the alleged unprofessional conduct by police officers who were in his entourage.

Mumbi also wondered why HH had not yet been arrested for treason.

“We know that Hakainde Hichilema doesn’t care about us women, that is why we have seen him referring to us women as belonging to a kitchen, we have seen him talking openly about menopause of women whom he is not married to, we know him. So this is a very strong warning to him, and believe you me, we have numbers and when he claims that the election petition is in the courts of law, that’s a lie. Did he want the constitutional court to extend the period of 14 days when they have no constitutional right to do that? That case is over, closed, dead. What is in the court is that they want that case to be heard but it’s over as per constitutional court procedure. So he shouldn’t be cheating us,” said Mumbi.

“Zambia police what constitutes to treason? Do you want people to take law in their own hands? Those who strong feel what Hakainde Hichilema is doing is too much and it can’t be business as usual. When I was growing up, my grandmother used to tell us that ‘nga na mukwata ichipuba mumunshi, you tolerate whatever he is doing ati efyo aba! One day chikamiletelela’. We don’t want Hakainde akatuletelele. Some of us have a life ahead of us, our children want to grow and become members of parliament, become vice presidents, and presidents. So we will not give room to Hakainde to destroy this country.”